The  STUDENT  YOUNG  MEN’S 
CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION 


The 

Comprehensiveness 
of  the 

Evangelistic  Aim 


J.  H.  OLDHAM 


The 

Comprehensiveness 
of  the 

Evangelistic  Aim 


J.  H.  OLDHAM 


ASSOCIATION  PRESS 
New  York:  347  Madison  Avenue 
1918 


I 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
The  International  Committee  of 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations 


The  Comprehensiveness  of  the 
Evangelistic  Aim 

The  promise  of  Jesus  to  the  first  dis¬ 
ciples  was  that  He  would  make  them 
“fishers  of  men.”  What  a  world  of 
thrilling  interest  and  inexhaustible  fasci¬ 
nation  that  promise  opens  up!  He 
offered  to  lead  them  out  from  their 
narrow,  contracted,  parochial  life,  in 
which  the  all-engrossing  interest  was 
fish,  into  the  great,  wide,  endless,  moving 
world  of  humanity  with  all  its  incalculable 
hopes  and  fears,  its  stirring  aspirations 
and  achievements  and  heroisms. 

To  bring  men  to  Christ — let  us  consider 
for  a  moment  what  is  involved  in  such  an 
aim.  Are  there  any  conceptions  richer 
and  profounder  than  those  we  have  just 
expressed — men  and  Christ?  Think  of 
the  inexhaustible  variety  and  depth  of 
human  life — the.  sheer  delight  in  living. 


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the  love  of  adventure,  of  daring  and  doing, 
the  deep-rooted  affections  of  the  home, 
the  incidents  of  daily  life  and  toil,  the  joy 
in  the  world  of  nature,  the  passion  for 
the  beautiful,  the  curiosity  regarding  the 
innumerable  objects  of  human  research, 
the  deep  desire  to  know  the  cause  and  ex¬ 
planation  of  things.  Consider  the  extraor¬ 
dinary  and  perplexing  differences  in  the 
temperaments  and  characters  of  men  in 
their  tastes,  their  pleasures,  their  inter¬ 
ests,  their  ambitions,  their  ways  of  doing 
things,  their  ways  of  being  affected  by 
things,  their  desires  and  hopes  and  beliefs. 
And  then  think  of  Christ,  the  universal 
Son  of  Man,  in  whom  every  race  of  man¬ 
kind  and  every  variety  of  human  tempera¬ 
ment  finds  its  ideal,  Christ  in  all  the  un¬ 
searchable  glory  of  His  perfection.  Is 
there  in  the  whole  world  a  larger  or  a 
grander  task  than  to  try  to  bring  men  to 
Christ?  Is  there  a  greater  privilege  than 
to  become  the  conscious  and  intelligent 
instrument  through  which  Christ  accom¬ 
plishes  His  mysterious  and  gracious  deal¬ 
ings  with  a  human  soul? 

Let  us  seek,  therefore,  to  lay  down  cer- 


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tain  principles  that  ought  to  guide  us  in 
seeking  to  carry  out  a  work  so  great,  so 
glorious,  and  so  difficult  as  this. 

We  must  certainly  entertain  a  profound 
respect  for  the  individuality  of  the  men 
we  desire  to  reach.  Every  life  has  a  pecul¬ 
iar  and  sacred  mystery  of  its  own.  We 
must  approach  it  with  the  utmost  rev- 
reence.  It  has  possibilities  of  its  own 
which  are  found  in  no  other  life.  Let  us 
beware  of  trying  to  impose  our  own  per¬ 
sonal,  limited,  rudimentary  apprehension 
of  Christ  upon  another  man.  Our  prayer 
must  be  that  he  may  learn  to  see  Christ 
with  his  own  eyes,  and  come  to  know 
Christ  in  his  own  way.  Let  us  never  for¬ 
get  that  our  part  is  to  supplement  the 
wonderful,  slow,  and  silent  processes  by 
which  God  is  patiently  seeking  to  bring 
that  soul  to  an  immediate  and  first-hand 
knowledge  of  Himself.  We  shall  never 
do  the  work  of  evangelism  as  it  ought  to 
be  done  until  we  have  felt  the  awe  and 
sacredness  of  it. 

We  must  learn  to  speak  the  language  of 
those  whom  we  seek  to  influence.  There 
is  a  language  of  thought  as  well  as  of 


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words.  And  just  as  you  cannot  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  people  of  China  because 
you  have  never  learned  to  use  their  speech, 
so  all  around  you  there  are  men  whom  you 
cannot  reach  because  you  are  not  able  to 
speak  in  a  language  that  they  can  under¬ 
stand.  You  have  never  penetrated  with 
sufficient  sympathy  into  the  world  in 
which  they  live  and  move.  You  are  un¬ 
familiar  with  the  thoughts  which  habit¬ 
ually  occupy  their  minds.  You  have 
never  felt  the  burdens  that  continually 
weigh  upon  their  spirits.  You  have  never 
been  conscious  of  needs  which  they  feel  to 
be  implanted  deep  within  their  nature,  and 
which  they  know  that  God  meant  to 
be  satisfied.  They  are  instinctively  aware 
of  this,  and  so  their  minds  are  closed 
against  your  appeal.  You  are  as  effec¬ 
tually  separated  from  them  by  this  in¬ 
compatibility  of  thought  as  you  are  from 
foreign  peoples  by  the  barrier  of  speech. 
You  can  never  influence  them  until  you 
have  learned  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
things  in  which  they  are  interested,  and 
to  look  out  upon  life  in  some  degree  with 
their  eyes.  Our  evangelistic  aim  de- 


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mands  that  we  should  take  an  interest  in 
everything  that  interests  men. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  conversion 
goes  to  the  very  roots  of  a  man’s  life.  It 
is  not  a  merely  emotional  change,  nor  a 
change  of  mere  outward  habits.  It  is  not 
the  adoption  of  a  new  phraseology,  the 
picking  up  of  new  catch-words,  or  begin¬ 
ning  to  associate  with  a  new  set  of  people, 
although  it  may  include  all  these  things. 
We  have  all  known  of  examples  which 
show  how  easily  these  outward  forms  may 
be  substituted  for  the  reality.  True  con¬ 
version  is  something  that  radically  alters 
the  whole  of  a  man’s  attitude  to  life.  It 
is  described  in  the  New  Testament  as 
becoming  a  new  creature,  or  as  being 
transformed  by  the  renewing  of  the  mind. 
It  means  learning  to  look  out  upon  life 
with  the  eyes  of  Christ.  That  is  some¬ 
thing  which  is  beyond  human  power  to 
produce.  When  we  see  a  man’s  life  in 
its  guiding  principles  and  ambitions  led 
captive  to  the  will  of  Christ,  we  stand 
back  amazed  and  exclaim,  “This  is  the 
work  of  God!’’  Our  evangelistic  aim  is 
something  so  great  that  it  can  be  accom- 


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plished  only  through  the  supernatural 
working  of  God’s  Spirit. 

And  hence  we  must  not  be  afraid  to  in¬ 
sist  upon  the  loftiness  and  moral  severity 
of  Christ’s  demands.  Christ  Himself  is 
our  great  example  in  this.  He  never 
lowered  His  demands  to  suit  men’s  weak¬ 
ness.  He  brought  them  face  to  face  with 
a  clear-cut,  searching,  tremendous  issue. 
“Whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  renounceth 
not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be  my  dis¬ 
ciple.’’  Christ’s  appeal  was  always  di¬ 
rected  to  the  heroic  in  men,  to  the  love  of 
the  adventurous,  the  exalted,  and  the 
noble.  In  words  that  stagger  us  by  the 
immensity  of  their  demands  He  declared, 
“Be  ye  perfect  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect.”  Let  us  follow  this 
great  example.  Do  not  let  us  try  to  hide 
the  cost  and  hardness  of  being  a  Christian. 
Let  us  not  be  afraid  to  make  it  plain  that 
surrender  to  Christ  is  something  that  cuts 
deep  into  life,  imposing  arduous  duties 
and  profoundly  influencing  daily  conduct. 
We  do  not  need  to  try  to  make  Christ’s 
demands  seem  easier  than  they  are.  Let 
us  rather  set  forth  their  loftiness  and  diffi- 


s 


culty  as  one  of  the  great  attractions  of  the 
Christian  life.  Let  us  point  out  as  one  of 
its  glories  that  it  opens  out  before  us  an 
infinite  ideal,  that  it  summons  us  to  the 
highest  of  which  we  are  capable,  that  it 
appeals  to  the  deepest  and  truest  instincts 
of  our  manhood,  to  courage,  devotion,  and 
loyalty.  If  we  seek  the  highest  success  in 
our  evangelistic  efforts  let  us  lay  aside  all 
apology,  hesitation,  and  timidity,  let  us 
issue  our  challenge  directly  to  the  heroic 
and  noble  side  of  men’s  characters,  and 
let  us  boldly  confess  that  Christ  would  not 
be  worth  following  unless  He  asked  from 
a  man  all  that  he  has. 

We  must  boldly  assert  the  right  of 
Christ  to  dominate  every  department  and 
interest  of  human  life.  That  is  one  of  the 
severest  and  highest  tests  of  our  faith.  It 
is  so  much  easier  to  narrow  the  circle  of 
our  interests,  to  withdraw  from  the  world 
into  the  society  of  the  like-minded  with 
ourselves,  and  so  to  live  a  restricted, 
maimed,  and  timid  life  that  is  inconsistent 
with  the  august  majesty  and  sublime 
authority  of  Christ.  Or  else  we  are 
tempted  to  break  up  our  life  into  depart- 


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ments  and  be  a  Christian  and  a  student,  a 
Christian  and  an  athlete,  a  Christian  and 
a  member  of  the  college  societies.  But 
Christ  claims  to  control  the  whole  of  our 
lives;  to  be  the  Master  of  every  depart¬ 
ment  of  human  life.  He  asks  us  to  be 
Christian  students,  Christian  athletes, 
Christian  citizens,  Christian  men.  And 
it  is  only  when  we  have  the  courage  to 
answer  to  that  demand  that  the  highest 
success  in  our  evangelistic  efforts  will  come 
to  us.  Are  there  not  whole  tracts  of  col¬ 
lege  life  which  we  have  been  too  cowardly 
and  unbelieving  to  claim  for  Christ? 
Have  we  dared  to  assert  His  right  to  be 
acknowledged  in  the  college  clubs  and 
societies?  Have  we  ever  had  the  faith  to 
declare  that  art  and  literature  and  politics 
must  acknowledge  the  dominion  of  Christ? 
Our  faith  must  rise  to  that  if  we  are  going 
to  take  this  evangelistic  policy  seriously. 
Let  us  have  the  courage  to  proclaim  fear¬ 
lessly  the  universal  authority  of  Christ, 
and  God  will  see  that  our  testimony  is 
not  put  to  shame. 

Our  evangelistic  efforts  must  be  domi¬ 
nated  by  the  missionary  outlook.  There 


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can  be  no  doubt  that  the  question  of 
personal  salvation  is  for  every  man  the 
central  one  of  life.  And  yet  it  may  be 
that  the  importance  and  urgency  of  this 
tremendous  issue  led  some  of  the  teachers 
of  a  past  generation  to  be  too  exclusively 
occupied  with  it,  or  at  least  with  one  side 
of  it.  And  as  a  protest  some  more  modern 
teachers  have  found  it  necessary  to  lay 
emphasis  on  another  fundamental  truth, 
that  “salvation  is  character.’’  I  think 
that  we  might  safely  go  further,  and  as  the 
figure  of  the  Son  of  Man  rises  before  our 
eyes,  the  form  of  the  suffering  servant  of 
Jehovah,  we  might  assert  that  salvation 
is  service.  The  salvation  which  we  offer 
to  men  must  be  something  that  looks  be¬ 
yond  itself.  Let  us  make  plain  to  them 
that  the  only  salvation  worth  having  is 
that  which  leads  us  to  become  like  Jesus 
Christ  in  His  life  of  ministering.  Let  us 
never  dissociate  salvation  from  that  out¬ 
look  upon  the  whole  world  with  which  it 
was  always  bound  up  in  the  mind  of  Jesus. 
And  to-day,  when  our  eyes  are  being 
opened  to  the  fact  that  in  all  our  large 
cities  our  fellow  human  beings  are  living 


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under  conditions  which  make  a  healthy,  a 
happy,  and  even  a  good  life  well-nigh  im¬ 
possible,  and  when  there  are  entering  into 
the  common  life  of  the  world  the  vast  pop¬ 
ulations  of  Asia  and  Africa  as  yet  practi¬ 
cally  untouched  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
let  us  find  a  new  constraint,  a  new  glory,  a 
new  thrill  in  all  our  evangelistic  efforts  in 
the  thought  that  the  men  and  women 
whom  we  are  trying  to  win  are  those  who 
may  bear  their  share  in  the  fulfilling  of  the 
great  tasks  to  which  Christ  is  calling  His 
Church. 


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